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I missed last week and didn’t have time to do an audit. But I took pictures of my office and some ideas of what I can do.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wkj8vui8kjbic2m/Seagate%20Waste%20Audit.pdf?dl=0I already started rinsing my recyclables, and I stopped bagging them, too. My husband and I are trying to figure out what stuff we can refuse from the beginning so we don’t even have to put stuff in the recycle bin. He loves to by disposable water bottles, but he is now considering getting some reusable ones. The visit really opened my eyes to how stuff may still end up at the landfill. So we are working on refusing—I also created an account for both of us on https://www.dmachoice.org/. Here you can opt out of junk mail. For free!
I found out the toothpaste tubes cannot be recycled. But Tom’s of Maine has a program through TerraCycle where you can send in used toothpaste tubes to be recycled. Once I’m done with the toothpaste I have, I’m switching to Tom’s.
http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/tom-s-of-maine-natural-care-brigade.html
It was overwhelming to see how much stuff is thrown away. It’s crazy that 60% of what is taken to the landfill can be recycled! I’m continuing to compost all our food waste (at least non-animal stuff). We have 5 keyhole garden beds so in the main garden bed I layer cardboard/paper/etc. and grass clippings. The gardens also have compost baskets where I layer our food waste, dryer lint, shredded paper, and coffee grounds from my office. I’m going to put a counter top compost bin at work to see if people will put their food waste in there to help. I now have a bucket to put our glass and I’ll take it to a Momentum Recycling bin in SLC when it fills up. I live in North Salt Lake so we don’t have the option to recycle glass yet. I am going to call Waste Management who does our recycling to clarify what items can be recycled. The information online isn’t clear. I also am determined to reduce my spending.
I’m also going to start a blog to document my experience in this class, and my journey overall on trying to get to zero waste.
Baby steps!
I’ve been trying to find out if toothpaste tubes can be recycled. And I’m also curious–what can NOT be recycled in Utah?
Hi Everyone! I’ve enjoyed reading all your introductions. I can’t wait to meet you and learn more about what y’all do. My name is Rebecca and I currently live in North Salt Lake. I’m a Utah native but I’ve lived all over the US. I am the Network Operations Manager for the Cloud division of Seagate. Years ago I was planning on going to school for sustainability, but ended up in technology. I’ve always had an interest in learning how to eliminate waste, etc., but it wasn’t until this May that I decided to make some changes. I went to the Wellness Festival in Sun Valley, Idaho and heard Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home speak. The trash for her family of 4 in 2014 fits in a quart jar! I decided that it was time to learn more, so I read her book and started making small changes at home. When I found out about this Master Recycler class I was so excited. I’m really looking forward to learning more, learning from all of you, and I’m eager to make changes in my home and hopefully in my community.
